INTRODUCTION

Leading through Positive Relational Energy

Recent events including earthquakes, floods, tornadoes, cyberattacks, ethical lapses, wildfires, and the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic have created a confluence of challenges that most of us have not experienced in our lifetimes. Racial injustice, economic devastation, and loss of life have elevated our collective consciousness regarding what is wrong in our world. Contention, outrage, and violence have become widespread. Extensive economic, emotional, and health effects have changed normal daily activities, relationships, institutions, and even values.

One response to these conditions has been an increased emphasis on how to stay positive, how to find happiness, and how to enhance well-being in trying times. In fact, tens of thousands of books are listed on Amazon on positivity, on happiness, and on well-being. Likewise, social media is filled with advice on how to cope with anxiety, stress, depression, and apprehension through the use of special diets and menus, physical fitness training, meditation, and positive thinking. Positivity has turned into a bit of a fad, and entries appearing in the media have escalated in the face of negative events.

The trouble is, when people are struggling emotionally, stressed from the loss of loved ones, jobs, or relationships, or just gritting through difficult days, it is often hard to be positive.¹ “Happiology”² is not exactly a preferred prescription for coping with tragedy. Not only that, but leaders in organizations often balk at interventions that focus on positivity, asserting that the daily pressures of managing bottom-line performance in turbulent times consume their time and attention. Positive practices are simply a deflection from real-world pressures, they say. Positivity is merely a feel-good side trip.

The National Labor Relations Board, in fact, recently issued a ruling against T-Mobile’s provision requiring that workers “maintain a positive work environment,” recognizing that directing employees to be positive may do more harm than good, ironically generating cynicism, resistance, burnout, and even outright hostility.³ Mandated positivity can come across as uncompassionate toward those who are mourning the deaths of friends and relatives, the loss of jobs, and disrupted in-person connections. They may not even feel capable of positivity. This problem highlights one of the major differences between this book and a multiplicity of “positivity” books on the market.

This book is not about positivity, happiology, or unbridled optimism. It is about how to capitalize on an inherent tendency in all living systems to orient themselves toward light or life-giving positive energy. It relies firmly on empirical evidence to describe the extraordinary results of positive energy in the workplace.

The basic message is this: all human beings flourish in the presence of light or of positive energy. This tendency is known as the heliotropic effect, a concept adapted from a phenomenon typically ascribed to how plants respond to the sun’s rays. The heliotropic effect is a scientifically verified phenomenon that has not yet been applied in the social and organizational sciences. Chapter 1 provides empirical evidence that the heliotropic effect influences individuals and that it provides an important way to cope with difficulties as well as with abundance. The evidence verifies that all human beings respond favorably to and are renewed by positive energy, and this book shows how to implement the heliotropic principle in practical ways.

The kind of positive energy that most accounts for flourishing in individuals and in organizations is called relational energy. This book explains how relational energy is created and enhanced through the demonstration of virtuous actions (e.g., generosity, compassion, gratitude, trustworthiness, forgiveness, and kindness). Virtuousness, especially as demonstrated by leaders, produces extraordinarily positive outcomes in individuals and their organizations, particularly in trying times and in situations of loss or grief. The empirical evidence confirming these outcomes is reviewed in chapters 2, 3, and 4.

Mandating that employees behave positively, think happy thoughts, or be cheerful when they are depressed, anxious, or experiencing emotional pain produces false positivity. It is inauthentic, disingenuous, dishonest, and untrustworthy. It denies reality, which is the opposite of virtuous responses in trying times. The reason virtuousness is so crucial in these conditions is precisely because it helps people cope in a genuine and authentic way. Positive relational energy increases rather than decreases when virtuousness is displayed.

For example, studies show that individuals who suffered the loss of loved ones but who subsequently became stronger as a result, learned to appreciate life more, and flourished personally had experienced others’ virtuous actions—compassion, authenticity, kindness, and higher purpose.⁴

Empirical evidence suggests that organizations as well as individuals achieve significant improvement in trying times when leaders are the role models of virtuous behavior. In one large financial services organization, for example, the CEO, John Kim, credited positively energizing leadership for the dramatic success achieved by his organization:

Implementing positively energizing leadership was initially seen as just being positive—smiles. It became clear, however, that this was a significant change.… There is no end, no final grade. This is about changing our culture, our strategy, and our approach. It is not a destination or a conclusion but a process. I will know that we have succeeded when customers and employees see us as above average in all the technical aspects of our business, but then by succeeding above all understanding. We don’t debate how we will get there. We just take initiative. If I wanted to stop this movement I couldn’t. It’s way beyond my control. People are doing things now that are self-perpetuating.⁵

John’s success included achieving profitability growth at four times the industry average, dramatic increases in employee well-being, significant decreases in employee turnover, and customer loyalty rates among the best in the industry.⁶

This book establishes the fact that an inclination toward virtuousness develops naturally in early infancy,⁷ that virtuousness produces positive relational energy, and that virtuousness in leaders is associated with positive outcomes in organizations. Figure 1.1 summarizes this central argument.

POSITIVE ENERGY IN LEADERS

A great deal of research confirms that leaders are vital in affecting the performance of organizations and their employees. In fact, between 20 and 70 percent of the variance in organizations’ performance is attributable to leadership behavior.⁸ No other factor—culture, strategy, processes, incentive systems—is as important.⁹ Therefore, this book highlights key attributes of positively energizing leaders and describes some practices and activities that help foster these positive outcomes. Virtuous behaviors demonstrated by leaders are important not only because they lead to positive outcomes (e.g., profitability, productivity, employee engagement) but also because they lead to the only kind of energy that does not deplete with use and does not require recovery time after it is expended. Whereas physical, emotional, and mental energy diminish with use, relational energy elevates. Virtuousness lies at the heart of positively energizing leadership and relational energy.

It is important to point out that positively energizing leaders are not self-aggrandizing, dominant individuals who seek the limelight. They are not always in charge or at the front. They are not necessarily extroverts and assertive in their demeanor. They are, rather, individuals who produce growth, development, and improvement among others with whom they interact. They exude a certain kind of light that is uplifting and helps others become their best. An apropos definition is a variation of a statement by John Quincy Adams from more than 200 years ago:

If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more, and become more, you are a positively energizing leader.

One exemplary role model of positively energizing leadership is a friend and colleague, Jim Mallozzi, a former CEO of one of the Prudential Financial Services businesses. Jim’s life as a leader has been marked by positive energy, positive leadership, and, as a result, positive results.

Jim was appointed CEO of the Prudential Real Estate and Relocation (PRERS) business when the organization was struggling. Employee morale was in the tank. Some customers were so dissatisfied that PRERS actually paid them a premium to remain as customers. The firm was $70 million in the red when Jim was appointed, and the previous year it had lost $140 million.

It’s nice to talk about being positively energizing when things are going well, but in difficult times, when all the indicators are going in the wrong direction, when finger-pointing and blaming are rampant, a positive perspective is usually seen as soft, syrupy, touchy-feely, Pollyannaish, and, frankly, just plain irrelevant. As a quintessential positively energizing leader, Jim said the following upon taking over the CEO role:

When I took over, we were facing a 70 million dollar loss per year. The company had lost 140 million dollars the year before. I harkened back to my previous experience in the company and what I learned about positively energizing leadership. The message was, let’s look at what we have as opposed to what we don’t have. Let’s look at what we can do as opposed to what we don’t do. How do we start to take the limits off our company, not in terms of just going back to where we were two years or five years ago, but how do we achieve something that is truly great and never seen before in our industry? We implemented a variety of positive practices and tools, and the results were astounding.¹⁰

The results, in fact, were astonishing. In 12 months PRERS went from a $70 million loss to a $20 million profit. The firm won the J.D. Power Award for Service (the nation’s most prestigious), and some customers gave PRERS a 100 percent satisfaction rating. Employee opinion scores increased in 9 of 10 categories. The firm’s financial performance doubled what the business plan predicted. Voluntary turnover declined. And, when Warren Buffett’s company, Berkshire Hathaway, acquired PRERS a few years later, its stock price was well above the stock price of the parent company.

It’s not just in his role as CEO, however, that Jim exemplified positive energizing leadership. It extended to his personal life as well. For example, one day Jim received a phone call from his wife, Maureen, reporting that his daughter’s high school grades had just been issued. He was told that he needed to talk with his daughter about a disastrous grade in one of her classes. Her grades looked like this:

The normal reaction for most parents is to focus on the abysmal grade in math class. It’s natural to concentrate primarily on what’s gone wrong. On the other hand, Jim didn’t abandon his positively energizing approach to problems, even at home, and this is essentially the way he approached the situation.

JIM: I need to talk to you about your report card.

DAUGHTER: Yeah, I know, dad.

JIM: I want to talk to you about your grade in English.

DAUGHTER: But I got an A in English.

JIM: I know you did. But I want to talk about English. Do you like your teacher?

DAUGHTER: I like her a lot.

JIM: Do you get your homework in on time, and do you participate in class?

DAUGHTER: Every day.

JIM: Do you go in after class to ask questions or check on assignments?

DAUGHTER: Yeah. I’ve gone in several times.

JIM: Do you have a study group to prepare for exams and assignments?

DAUGHTER: Several of us get together to study and help each other out.

JIM: Look, Sweetheart. You are an A student. You know how to get As. But now let’s talk about math. Do you like your teacher?

DAUGHTER: I think he is a jerk.

JIM: Do you get your homework in on time, and do you participate in class?

DAUGHTER: Heck no. I don’t understand the material.

JIM: Do you go in after class to ask questions or check on assignments?

DAUGHTER: No. I probably should, but I don’t want to appear stupid.

JIM: Do you have a study group to prepare for exams and assignments?

DAUGHTER: No, I don’t want others to know how bad I am at math.

JIM: Well, Sweetheart, why don’t you just apply in math class what you know how to do to get As in English? I will check with you every Friday, and I’ll ask you about these things. You don’t have to like your teacher, but you have to respect him. I want to encourage you to participate in class each day, even if it is just to raise your hand and ask the teacher to repeat what he just said. In addition, consider going in after class and checking with the teacher about what is confusing. If you don’t get it, a lot of others don’t either, so why don’t you put together a study group to help each other out? And if you don’t get your homework done because you don’t understand it, let me know, and we’ll get you some help. Will you do it?

DAUGHTER: OK, sure, dad.

It’s not hard to guess what her grade was in math at the end of the next semester.

This book explains what is meant by positive energy, how it relates to leadership, and what its effects are on the lives of individuals and the organizations in which they are employed. In addition to providing examples and stories, the book also provides validated empirical research to confirm all of the prescriptions.

Evidence is important because when results count, when desired outcomes need to be ensured, when impact is significant, scientific validity is crucial. None of us would subject ourselves to a physician who practiced medicine on the basis of a magazine article, an inspiring story, or an interesting example. We would need to be confident that his or her medical practice is based on credible, validated science. The same is true in organizations. Because leaders have a significant impact on the performance of organizations, it is important that when we give advice to leaders, evidence exists that what we are prescribing is credible and valid. This is why this book is careful to provide the scientific references and the relevant data that validate the prescriptions in this book.

OVERVIEW

Chapter 1 explains what is meant by positive energy and why all human beings have an inherent inclination toward it. The key concept is the heliotropic effect: the natural tendency in all living systems to orient themselves toward light and life-giving positive energy. Chapter 2 explains the importance of positively energizing leadership in organizations and individuals. In chapter 3, the key attributes of positive energizers are enumerated, and the research confirming their impact on organizational performance as well as on employees is summarized. Chapter 4 highlights some behaviors and practices that are seldom linked to positive energy but that are heliotropic and foster positive energy and positive outcomes.

Several examples of organizations that have capitalized on positive energy are discussed in chapter 5 as well as what they did to achieve outstanding performance. The book includes several practical applications that have been utilized in organizations in which I have conducted research. Chapter 6 addresses a variety of objections to a positive perspective and to positive energy as a topic. Some suggestions that address these objections and criticisms are offered so that readers can be confident in the validity and utility of positive energy, positive leadership, and positive practices.

Three supplemental resources are provided: resource 1 identifies several methods for measuring positive energy in leaders, resource 2 identifies some of the practices that foster it, and resource 3 provides discussion questions that may assist in teaching and coaching situations as well as in enhancing application.